


Through it All

by TUNiU



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, POV Alfred Pennyworth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 07:08:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18310679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TUNiU/pseuds/TUNiU
Summary: We always see Bruce in the moments after his parents death. We never get to see Alfred.





	Through it All

Alfred is closing the mansion for the night: doing laundry, washing the dinner dishes, preparing the bedrooms for when the Wayne's return from the opera...when there's a knock at the door.

It can't be the Family, he knows the opera is still going.

When Alfred opens the door, poised and ready to refuse any visitors at such a late hour, it's two Gotham City Police Officers standing in the drizzling rain. He barely hears them: there was a mugging, The Waynes are dead, very sorry for your loss.

There's no second of confusion, no 'you must have the wrong house gentlemen', Alfred's mind jumps straight to bargaining, pleasenoanythingbutthis. They aren't just his employers, not for so many years, since before Bruce was born.

They're his family, his to care for.

The police tell him, the son saw it happen.  
Thomas and Martha are dead. But Bruce lives. He stops pleading. Bruce is waiting for him.

Alfred follows the police to their car. In years to come, he will never remember the ride to the precinct. He remembers opening the mansion door, viscerally understanding that Bruce was now all alone, and he remembers walking into the precinct, Bruce running into his legs and hugging him tightly.

A long cheap coat trails around Bruce's shoulders. There's an officer standing up from kneeling at Bruce's now vacant chair. All Alfred can see is Bruce's hair, the boy won't look up, as he cries and rubs his tears into Alfred's clothes. All Alfred can do is hug him tight.

There are questions and paperwork. There's a call to the Wayne lawyers and a social worker. Through it all, Bruce sits next to Alfred; quiet, crying. He stares down, his hands clasped tight in his lap. Alfred wants to hold his hand, take him away from the station. But there are legalities to work through, custody to arrange. The Wayne's made him Bruce's guardian, and his proxy.

The lawyers drone on and on, Alfred now holds controlling interest in all of Wayne Enterprises until Bruce is of age. Can't they see, none of that matters? A little boy just watched his parents die, and Alfred is trapped here, until the right people are told, the right forms are signed.

And later, there will be bodies to claim, and a funeral to plan. But for now, there is Bruce. Only Bruce.

It's the next day before Alfred takes Bruce home. When Alfred goes to make Bruce breakfast, the boy follows him. When Alfred retrieves the laundry from last night, the boy follows him. It must be the first time Bruce has ever seen Alfred doing the day to day items that keep the mansion in shape.

Through it all, Bruce is quiet.

It will take many quiet days before Bruce sobs that it was all his fault. Before Bruce is able to work with the police to identify the man that made him an orphan. The quiet days cease with the court case and the paparazzi and the Wayne Industry board meetings.

And through it all, Alfred is there. Bruce is his to care for.


End file.
